Bride-to-be Blogger Alyse: The Bridesmaids’ Dress Is Chosen!

Alyse's final choice: J.Crew's silk satin Nanine dress in sweet almond! Photo, jcrew.com.

Last week, I finally got over my fear of bridesmaids dresses and made a decision. After thinking back to the less than successful experiences I had way back in October at four other bridesmaids dress salons (and I use the word “salon” loosely), I determined that J.Crew was the way to go.

I originally went to J.Crew at the request of one of my bridesmaids. Did I say request? Oh, that’s right, she made her bridesmaid acceptance contingent on me taking her to the J.Crew Bridal Salon in Manhattan. Thankfully, the experience lived up to both of our very high expectations. The salon is beautiful and the service is top notch. My friend looked like a kid in a candy store as she checked out the exclusive J.Crew collection. I highly recommend a pilgrimage to this store for any J.Crew enthusiast.

At this first trip in October, I liked a few dresses, but wasn’t sold on the colors. The frontrunner was a satin material in a champagne color that J.Crew calls “sweet almond.” (I’d like to think that the people who get to name nail polish colors for living have to do some time naming bridesmaids dress colors to get some experience; that can’t be a job that you just get.) Because I wasn’t ready to make such a monumental decision at that time, I decided to wait. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little stressed about this decision. I wanted to find that perfect intersection of price and quality, but the selection out there left me seriously disappointed. After thinking about it more (and seeing the six-months-to-go mark come and go), I decided that the sweet almond dress was the best choice.

I took my sister and cousin to the J.Crew mother ship that is the Bridal Salon, and they tried on the dress (they were equally impressed). I had been monitoring the price, and by that point, it had been discounted three times and was now in final sale, so I knew I had to act fast. And with a 30percent off final sale price, my intentional procrastination served a not-insignificant purpose in the price department, so decided to go for it.

So now all of the dresses are ordered, which is such a relief. This does mean, however, that my colors have changed slightly—though it’s not like they were set to begin with. As of now, I am going with champagne (or sweet almond, or whatever) and coral. There will probably be a few other colors thrown in, but we will have to wait and see what the next big decision leads to.

Did you chose your bridesmaids’ dress after deciding what your colors would be? Or did you find a dress you loved first, and that’s how you figured out what your palette would be? Anyone else out there a ‘maid-dress procrastinator?

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